No, really… the story in itself is quite daft (and I am pro-MS regards that aspect of it) – but the article also contains:

Earlier this month, Microsoft won a patent for XML in word processing documents. Microsoft’s patent is “directed at providing a word-processing document in a native XML file format that may be understood by an application that understands XML, or to enable another application or service to create a rich document in XML so that the word-processing application can open it as if it was one of its own documents.”

The patent abstract is:

Word-processing document stored in a single XML file that may be manipulated by applications that understand XML

Abstract

A word processor including a native XML file format is provided. The well formed XML file fully represents the word-processor document, and fully supports 100% of word-processor’s rich formatting. There are no feature losses when saving the word-processor documents as XML. A published XSD file defines all the rules behind the word-processor’s XML file format. Hints may be provided within the XML associated files providing applications that understand XML a shortcut to understanding some of the features provided by the word-processor. The word-processing document is stored in a single XML file. Additionally, manipulation of word-processing documents may be done on computing devices that do not include the word-processor itself.

Partly or fully, that sounds like patenting an interoperable-pure-single-XML-file-format.

Totally potty. I wonder what the SGML relics think of this?